All Afghan refugees should return to Afghanistan in next 2 years: Ghani

Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani has pledged to bring back all refugees in Pakistan in “the next 24 months,” saying it will put an end to allegations the displaced community is a source of regional instability.

The pledge came as ties between the two uneasy neighbors have deteriorated over allegations the Pakistani military shelters and assists Taliban militants and those of the Haqqani network waging deadly attacks in Afghanistan against local and U.S.-led forces.

Pakistan hosts an estimated 2.7 million Afghan refugees, half of them undocumented, and has been pressing the need for an early repatriation of the displaced population, saying their presence “helps Afghan terrorists to melt and morph among them.”

“In the next 24 months my priority and goal is to bring back all Afghan refugees in Pakistan,” President Ghani said in a televised speech Saturday.

“We don’t want them [Pakistanis] to say refugees do this or do that. [We know] refugees are innocent. So, let us resolve to bring them back to solve this problem once for all,” Ghani asserted.

He also promised to make efforts to bring back Afghan refugees in Iran.

Ghani was speaking to a gathering at the presidential place in Kabul marking the end of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan that had forced millions of people to take refuge in Pakistan and Iran.

Critics are skeptical, however, of Ghani’s declarations because his government also initiated a refugee repatriation soon after it took power in 2014.

But a lack of jobs and basic services, such as healthcare and education, as well as allegations of rampant corruption in the relevant Afghan ministry discouraged displaced families from returning at the time, according to international aid workers and refugees.

Even those Afghans who did return home ended up back in Pakistan or attempted to flee to other foreign destinations, they say.

In his speech Saturday, President Ghani disclosed that Kabul will host an international conference on February 28 where it will table a proposed plan to promote peace with the Taliban to end the violence.